Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man (The Willows)2011

Silicone; fibreglass; hair; clothing; mixed media.

As the title may suggest to some, this work is an assemblage of two prior works: the photograph Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man (1840) by Hippolyte Bayard, and 'The Willows' (1907), a short story by Algernon Blackwood. In this story (considered by HP Lovecraft the greatest supernatural story ever written) a man is found drowned and marked with small funnel-shaped indentations — 'That awful mark!' — made by an unknown supernatural being; the title of Bayard's photograph (considered by some the first conceptual art photograph) suggested the identity of the unfortunate victim.